


A Taste for Blood

by mariachiMushroom



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Abusive Relationships, Blood, Chastity Device, Eye squick, so much blood
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-25
Updated: 2015-06-25
Packaged: 2018-04-06 01:53:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,380
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4203468
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mariachiMushroom/pseuds/mariachiMushroom
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Carlos gets a nosebleed in the Desert Otherworld, which Kevin finds intriguing. But Kevin's scientist put a safeguard in place for just this situation ...</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Taste for Blood

“Carlos, if we're going to be hanging out together, we should really get to know each other better!” said a too-cheerful male voice. “We could play one of the sixty-three approved ice breaker games from the StrexCorp Employee Handbook. My favorite is the one where you pretend you're being transferred to a desert island, and you're only allowed to bring one item with you. After everyone shares their special item, the whole group, as a team, votes on which of your fellow island-dwellers will be slaughtered as food for the rest of the group. And then we break for lunch!”

“I'm too busy to play twenty questions, Kevin,” said a curly-haired man wearing a labcoat. His feet crunched in the desert gravel as he walked counterclockwise around a large sandstone pillar. “I'm trying to figure out this weird spatial abnormality. This pillar is only ten feet wide, or at least it looks like it's only ten feet wide. But I've been walking for hours now, and I still can't see you around the corner. I mean, I can still hear your voice, so you can't be that far away.” The scientist stopped in his tracks. “You're not circling around on the other side of the pillar just to mess with me, are you?”

“Nope! I've been sitting in the shade, just like you left me.”

“Well, once I figure out what's causing this distortion, I will be one step closer to figuring out the mysteries of this Desert Otherworld. And one step closer to getting us back home.” Back to Cecil, he failed to add. Did Kevin have someone waiting for him back in Desert Bluffs? That man was such an ESFJ. Ever since Carlos had stumbled across the void-eyed man in the flat wasteland, Kevin had latched onto the scientist like a rare-earth magnet to a refrigerator.

“Soooo, what's your favorite color?”

Ignoring the nattering man, the scientist bent to his knees to scoop up a handful of gravelly sand. The excess sand didn't so much pour as plop, making a noise much like the splatter of the dead animals dropped by the Glow Cloud--

“ALL HAIL.”

– only less moist.

“Alhale? I've never heard of that color before. My favorite color is, of course, StrexCorp orange, as required by company policy. But, my second favorite color is red. Beautiful, luxurious, silken red. Bright red, the color of poppies and fresh, arterial blood. Burgundy red, the color of wine and the tired, slow venous blood that just needs a quick trip to the lungs to perk up again! Dark red, the color of rust and old walls in need of repainting. Oh, you could make a whole rainbow from a single hue!”

“Mmm hmm,” hummed Carlos, barely listening. He lifted his handful of sand close to his face, scrutinizing it in the bright desert sunlight. Was it more shiny than usual? Denser? Maybe it generated some kind of magnetic field distorting his perception of distance.

A sudden gust billowed out of the desert, blowing the loose particles into his face. The scientist cursed as sand flew into his eyes and up his nose.

“Are you okay, friend?” Footsteps on gravel. Through watering eyes, Carlos glanced up to see corporate casual faux-leather shoes, attached to his casually corporate fair-weather friend. Who was still maintaining his rictus grin, despite his tone of concern.

“How did you get to me so fast?”

“I traveled clockwise.” The sun in the scientist's eyes and the remaining sand conspired to make his pharyngeal and tracheal muscles contract, expelling all the air in his lungs in one explosive burst in an attempt to clear his nasal passages of their irritants.

In other words, he sneezed.

“Well, I'm fine,” said Carlos, wiping his nose on his lab coat sleeve. Instead of a clear trail of snot, his nose left a streak of red on the white cloth.

“It looks like your nose is bleeding.” Kevin crouched down and reached for Carlos's face, but the scientist batted the hand away.

“I can handle this.” Carlos pinched his nose and tilted his head back.

“Oh, no! You should tilt your head forward to let the blood drip out. Don't keep it all to yourself. That would be selfish.”

Reluctantly, Carlos followed Kevin's instructions. The former radio host eyed the trickle of blood running down the scientist's lip. Or at least, Carlos thought Kevin was eyeing his lip. It was kind of hard to tell what the man was looking at, considering he had a pair of dark, gaping mouths instead of eyes.

Drops of dark red splattered on the pebbled ground. Kevin bit his lip and shivered. He picked up a blood-spattered pebble and held it up to his face. A tongue flicked out of his right eye, lapping up the blood.

“Mmm. Are you type O?”

“Well, yes, but that doesn't mean you can just eat my blood! It's my blood! It belongs to me!”

“You were just going to throw it away. Let it go to waste! Such a shame!” Kevin popped the rock into his eye-mouth for it to suck on. He beamed, squirmed happily –

And doubled over.

The rock plopped out of Kevin's eye-mouth and clattered to the ground. He stood up abruptly, using his hands to shield his crotch. With his face twisted in a pained expression, the man said,

“I need to use the facilities.” Then, with a stiff-legged gait, he walked counterclockwise away from the scientist.

“Wait, you need to urinate? But we haven't eaten or drunk anything for months! I have to observe! For science!” Carlos patted his nose on his sleeve and followed Kevin around the sandstone pillar. But, even though he could see the other man's footprints, the scientist could not catch up to him. Until he paused, turned around, and started walking in the other direction.

Traveling clockwise, it took only a couple of strides for Carlos to see Kevin. The void-eyed man was leaning against the sandstone, his forehead protected by his forearm. He cupped his groin, and breathed in ragged pants. When the man noticed Carlos's approach, he started, staring at the scientist like a spider-eyed deer in headlights.

“I'm going to give you some privacy now,” said the scientist, walking back the way he came. He took a couple steps counterclockwise and sat against the pillar, running his fingers through his curly hair. Stupid, stupid, stupid! He should have noticed that the creepy radio host had a blood fetish, and needed some “alone time.” At least he hadn’t gotten his nosebleed in the middle of the desert.

“Ah, blood. So much blood.” Whimpers and moans from the other side of the pillar. If Kevin wanted privacy so much, he probably shouldn't have been making so much noise.

“Carlos,” the former radio host gasped, “I'm going to tell you a secret. I like blood. I love blood! Each drop is a gift from the Smiling God himself! A gift to the Smiling God! A gift we owe the Smiling God, so that his lips can drip full and bright and happy.” Carlos could hear the smile in Kevin's voice. Then the tone changed, became quieter. “But I don't like blood sacrifices quite so much … when it's my own blood.”

Carlos's blood ran cold at the words, despite the fact that they were in an objectively broiling desert.

“Kevin, Kevin, are you alright?” Carlos ran in the correct direction around the pillar this time. As he rounded the corner, he saw the man huddled in a fetal position on the ground with his hands pressing together as if to stopper the violent red flow from his crotch. Glistening streaks of sweat tears dripped down the side of his face.

Deep breaths. Don't panic. Assess the situation.

“Kevin, you wouldn't happen to be … trans, would you?”

“No,” squeaked the man, “and if I was, StrexCorp would have fixed me a long time ago.”

“Did you cut yourself? Pass a kidney stone?” The former radio host squeezed his watering eyes shut and shook his head.

“Let's just take off your pants and see what's going on down there,” said Carlos slowly, like he was talking down a vicious and sensitive bear who had just been rejected from ballet tryouts. “Can you move your hands away?” Kevin nodded and slowly uncurled his body to lie flat, his fists clenched white at his sides. While Carlos stripped the pants off, the former radio host babbled away.

“We both left people behind when we came to this Desert Otherworld. I've know the way you look at me when you think I don't notice. I look just like your radio host, don't I. You know, I have someone waiting for me too. A scientist. I love him so much that I haven't tried to contact him! At all! If, no, when I get back to Desert Bluffs, it'll be a surprise. A happy surprise!”

As Carlos reached fingers down the waistband Kevin's underwear, his fingers brushed against something ribbed and rubbery. Slowly, gingerly, he peeled off the sodden cloth.

“What is that?” There was some kind of pallid, organic thing on Kevin's crotch which looked like a cross between a xenomorph nymph and a tapeworm. A large fleshy mass with a toothy, vulva-like opening rested on the man's pubic bone, held in place by a flat tail looped around his waist. The mass enveloped Kevin's genitalia, leaving only a small opening at the tip for urine, and now, blood, to ooze out of. Through the slightly-translucent organic membrane, Carlos could see white, needle-like teeth piercing Kevin's shaft.

“It's the belt my scientist gave me on our third date. He said he designed it himself. Isn't it romantic? A valuable human resource, spending so much time and effort all for me.”

“Why would he do something like that!” Carlos's hands were shaking, whether from horror or anger, he couldn't tell.

“I’ve been a bad boyfriend. I’ve been thinking about Carlos and Carlos’s blood instead of staying loyal to my scientist. But he, in his prescient wisdom, knew this would happen! And so, he kindly gave me a reminder of who’s really important in my life.”

“So, does your … scientist also wear a belt?”

“No,” the man admitted. “He said it would distract him from his very important scientific research. He–he–” Kevin wiped his face. “Wow, my eyes are really drooling today! They must be very hungry.” The man dipped his hands in the growing pool of blood and held them up to his eyes. “Drink up, little guys!” But the tongues did not venture from their dark caverns.

“Okay, I don't care if this is some weird kind of Desert Bluffs courtship ritual, we have to get this belt off you. Surely your scientist–”

“Santiago.”

“–your Santiago must take it off at some point. How does he do it?”

“It's blood-locked.” Of course it would be. “The front opening takes a blood sample from your finger.” Carlos eyed the sharp teeth of the sampling mouth.

“And what happens if someone unauthorized tries to take it off?”

“Oh, that happened to my proctologist! I guess Santiago must have forgotten to give him access, because it bit his finger off!” Kevin giggled deliriously.

“Hijo de–okay, let me find a sharp rock.” Before Carlos could stand up, Kevin grabbed his coat.

“Don't! I mean, you can't. If you disturb the belt, it will bite down.” Carlos did not want to know how Kevin knew that. The trembling, crying, half-naked man reached for his hand. The corners of his lips barely twitched upwards. Carlos couldn't just let him bleed out. Even if he was some kind of creepy evil Cecil twin.

Wait. Twins.

“Kevin, I've got a hypothesis that needs testing. Here goes science!” And Carlos plunged his finger into the sampling mouth.

Actually, maybe plunged was the wrong word. The scientist tentatively stroked the mouth with his index finger until its guarding teeth opened up. Then he slid his thumb into the warm hole. The mouth sucked his finger in, the external teeth making threatening divots on his finger.

“When does the sample–mierda!” Carlos swore as something sharp pricked his fingertip. He resisted the urge to jerk his hand away. Consider it a gom jabber. As the belt digested the offering of blood, the scientist and the former radio host clutched hands. The belt squirmed around Kevin's waist. Mierda, he should have used his pinky instead of his favorite thumb. Carlos held his breath.

The tail of the belt contracted and pulled out of the right side of the main mass. The entire belt relaxed, becoming as limp as a popped balloon. Carlos exhaled slowly. He withdrew his finger and worked the slack sheath off of Kevin's penis. The thin teeth slid out of the flesh they were embedded in. Kevin breathed a sigh of relief.

“Carlos! My hero!”

“We're not done here yet.” Carlos grabbed the biggest, pointiest rock in arm's reach and brought it down on the main mass of the chastity belt. Green blood splattered his white lab coat, but he didn't give a damn about cleanliness or biohazards at this point. He smashed the rock over and over on the vile organism until it was a smear of arsenic green against the tan desert ground.

“No, no, you’ve done it now, Santiago is going to be very unhappy with me. And unhappiness is a disease. It’s very contagious.”

“Forget it. You're not going back to any guy who would put that on you. I can't believe a person who's genetically identical to me would do that.”

“But I can’t avoid him forever. Desert Bluffs is only so big.”

“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but you could live in Night Vale. You’ll like it, it’s very … lively. Oh, you could even buy a house in the Stone Field suburbs. I hear the walls leak blood there every other full moon.”

“That sounds nice.” Kevin smiled, more genuinely this time.

“All right! We’ll try to find our way back as soon as I finish my next experiment on this pillar. If the speed of travel is based on the direction of rotation, then if you chip off a piece and spin it …”

**Author's Note:**

> My first WTNV fic! I hope I got the tone right. I could have put a little bit more in there about Kevin being in a terrible vicious cycle of being aroused by blood, which then causes the chastity belt to dig into him further, releasing more blood. But, whatever.
> 
> Frightened? Sickened? Strangely aroused? Leave a comment!


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